RALEIGH, N.C. - Having previous ties with most members of the Pack’s coaching staff, offensive coordinator Matt Canada begins his first season at NC State. Canada was Dave Doeren’s offensive coordinator in 2011 at Northern Illinois, and directed the Wisconsin offense last season.

Q: Why did you choose to come to NC State, and why did you choose to work with Coach Doeren?A: Obviously, you know I have a prior relationship with Dave and worked with him at Northern Illinois and won a championship. So obviously, it’s a big deal. Certainly, he’s a family-friendly coach who allows our children to be around the office. That’s certainly a big deal to me. He does a great job with his messages to the team. Again, he’s been a head coach for two years and has won two championships, so it made it real easy to come work for him.

Q: How does a quarterback competition benefit an offense compared to where you have an established guy?A: I think, obviously, you make the best of whatever situation. If you have a guy who has played for three years, he’s going to be a fourth year starter. Everyone is going to feel good about it. The negatives of that is when he does get nicked up, what are we going to do and the panic. Competition has never been a bad thing. If you’re competing at whatever profession you’re in, if they bring somebody in to do your job, you’re going to be better. Hopefully we compete against ourselves and we all try to do that. The great players in our game do that, guys who compete every day to be better than they were. Having someone push you is always positive, so it has been a great, healthy situation for us.

Q: You’re first week here, when you first walked in, what did you think about the facilities at NC State?A: It’s amazing. It’s an amazing place. That fact that we have everything here probably, I continue to say, you win with people. We have everything anybody could want facility-wise. There is no question about that. But the bottom line is, you win with people. What jumped out to me were the people. The ladies, the gentlemen, who take care of us and provide our food. The way, this place is immaculate every day. The way the staff keeps this thing so clean and so nice. The people at NC State have such pride for this program and the university. That’s what I noticed the most when I got here. This is a beautiful building and great facilities, but all those things are because the people make it good in the environment in which we are in.

Q: Does it make your job more difficult to integrate 8-9 wideouts into the game plan?A: Its fun because you can play as many guys who prove they are capable of playing and that’s what we’re trying to do. It’s a good situation. We’re just going to throw it to the guys who are ready to go catch it and when they get tired, we’ll put somebody else out there.

Q: I know a lot of it depends on personal, but what run/pass balance do you prefer?A: We always want to run the ball. Perfect world, clinic talk, you want to say you’re 50/50 but some games they take something away and you try to run it every play, and some tell you throw it every play. We’re always going to have the desire to run the football. That’s something that’s important to us. It’s an identity of our team to be physical and run the ball but we’re also always going to take what they give us. So, we don’t have a number either way.